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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Glyphosate: The Battle Royal in France

Politico has released a story about the battle over glyphosate in France that details the inner conflict inside the French government where two key ministers have been battling it out over whether or not the Roundup, the herbicide that contains glyphosate and which has been deemed carcinogenic by the UN's primary cancer researchers, should be used in France.

Royal and Foll

According to the news report, the minister of the environment, Segolene Royal (who is the mother of French President Hollande's four children) has prevailed, with Hollande voting on her side of the debate, to ban the sale of glyphosate in the future. According to Politico, Hollande believes the support from green voters is larger than the support from farmers.

Agriculture minister Stephene La Foll, a Socialist, has opposed the ban on behalf of French farmers.

France has also passed a permanent ban on neonics, the bee and bird killing toxin (widely use in the U.S. on vineyards) that will take effect in 2018.

In large measure, support for the ban shifted after a French television station aired a documentary showing the impact that vineyard chemicals were having on workers and children. (See the earlier post on this topic here.) Here is the documentary:

According to Politico's coverage, other European countries are passing stronger laws governing farmers' use of chemicals - Germany and the Czech Republic are passing new legislation to place stricter controls on these pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

Meanwhile in California, Monsanto has held up EPA regulations to label Roundup as a carcinogen by filing a lawsuit against the EPA.

In April, San Francisco, ABC television station, Channel 7, covered the story of glyphosate in two news segments. Here's the first one:

Wines We Cover

We publish information about wines grown from certified organic or Biodynamic vineyards that are generally made with sulfites (which are usually added in small amounts to preserve the wine).

That includes these certification types:

ORGANIC WINE CERTIFICATIONS

• Made with Organic Grapes

Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites (i.e. a normal range)

Winery: certified organic facility

Labeling: front or back label

• Ingredients: Organic Grapes

Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification: up to 350 ppm of sulfites (same as for any non organic wine)

Labeling: back label only

BIODYNAMIC® CERTIFICATIONS

• Biodynamic Wine

Vineyards: certified biodynamic

Yeasts: native

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; no additives of any kind

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back label; Demeter logo may appear

• Made with Biodynamic Grapes

Vineyards: certified biodynamic

Yeasts: native or organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; limited number of additives permitted

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back

Note: unlike organically grown wines, for which there is a category called "Ingredients: Organic Grapes," wines sourced from biodynamic grapes may not make any biodynamic claim on the bottle label. Bottle labeling is reserved for Demeter certified wines only.

SULFITES IN CONTEXT

According to U.C. Davis, the average among all wines in the U.S. (as well as globally) is 80 ppm.

WHAT THE USDA CALLS ORGANIC WINES

Unlike any other nation, the U.S. oddly imposes a no sulfite restriction on wines in order for them to be called Organic Wine. These wines are also called NSA or NAS wines (which stands for "No Sulfites Added" or "No Added Sulfites.")

From the above description, one can see that there are in fact three types of organically grown wines:

1. Organic Wine (less than 15% of all organically grown wine)

2. Made with Organic Grapes

3. Ingredients: Organic Grapes

The vast majority of wines from organic grapes are labeled Made with Organic Grapes, Ingredients: Organic Grapes or are blended with nonorganic grapes and unlabeled.

Fine winemakers do not generally make wine without sulfites and a number of large wine retailers like BevMo do not sell wine in the category of "USDA Organic Wine."

With rare exceptions, this blog does not cover what the USDA calls "Organic Wine."

We are hopeful that the USDA will revise the categorization of organically grown wines and make NSA or NAS wines a category of their own.

This would put the U.S. in accord with the rest of the world, where "Organic Wine" means a wine from certified grapes made within limits on sulfites (generally under 100-150 ppm).